An August Afternoon
by midnight arrow
Summary: A chance meeting between Ron and Luna ignites sparks neither anticipated on a hot summer afternoon . RLuna. Takes place the summer after 5th year. Slight OotP spoilers


**An August Afternoon**

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters nor the Harry Potter universe; if I did I would most certainly resurrect a certain character.

Summary: In GoF it was revealed that the Lovegoods live nearby the Weasleys, this vignette deals with a chance meeting between Ron and Luna on a hot August afternoon. R/Luna. Takes place the summer after 5th year. Slight OotP spoilers

            It was a hot August afternoon that found Ron and Ginny Weasley traipsing through the woods adjacent to the edge of the Burrow property.

            "Tell me again _why_ we're doing this?" whined Ginny, fanning herself in the hot August sun.

            "I told you, we gotta find the snitch." said Ron, referring to the secondhand snitch Ron had bought Harry as a birthday present (which he would give him when he would visit the Burrow later that month). "It's not my fault someone here wanted to test it out!" Here he adopted a high pitch girly voice, "Oh, _come on_ Ron! Harry'll never know! Besides we gotta test it out! How would you like it if we gave your best friend a _defective birthday present?!?"_

            "Oh please! Don't be a prat! It's not entirely my fault! You were just as bored as I was and wanted to play a game of quidditch too! And we did have to test it out! Who knew if the snitch still contained its magic to play quidditch with? After all it is a rather old-fashioned design, a relic really." Ginny added in her defense. 

            "Which is all the more reason why I should have never agreed to play. Merlin knows where it flew off to! And if what you say is true, it could have landed anywhere!" Ron replied while peering through some bushes.

            "I'm going to kill Fred and George for leaving us to find it by ourselves! Look, why don't we split up? You go that way," Ginny said pointing east toward the brook that broke off from the river. "And I'll go this way," Ginny said pointing west. "If you haven't found it after an hour, just double back and head home. We'll try again tomorrow and if worst comes to worst we'll get mum to _Accio it for us, even though she'll probably kill us for loosing Harry's birthday present in the first place." Ginny added while squinting against the hot August sun._

            "Good idea, Gin. See you in a bit then," Ron said while heading east.

***

            Ron peered through the thick grass and trees trying to glimpse the dull sheen of the golden snitch.

            He paused to wipe some sweat from his brow and looked around to get his bearings. He heard the faint trickle of the brook some yards in the distance and headed towards the direction of it. 

            By the time he came upon the brook, the thick foliage and wild grass gave way to sparse trees basking the water bank in cool shade.

            "I knew there was a reason why I wasn't a seeker," Ron grumbled as he bent down, exhausted, to drink from the creek.

            "Looking for this?" A soft voice drifted across the brook. 

            Startled, Ron turned and unbalanced, promptly fell into the brook. 

            Loud giggling burst through the brook.

            Ron, furious and bewildered, climbed out of the shallow water. Dripping wet, his white t-shirt sticking to his chest, his Weasley red hair plastered to his forehead, turned and came upon the most peculiar sight.

            There sitting in the shade under a tree sat Luna Lovegood, bent and clutching her sides in mirth with the _The__ Quibbler laying beside her, forgotten. _

            Ron, unaware his mouth was hanging open, continued to stand there and stare at her with the tips of his ears turning bright red.

            Abruptly she stopped laughing.

            "Looking for this?" She repeated holding a still snitch in her hand.

            "Yeah." 

            Her wide pale eyes stared at him for a second.

            "Aren't you going to come here and get it?"

            Ron, still bewildered, slowly moved toward her, painfully aware of his clothes sticking to his body under her unblinking gaze.

            He cautiously approached her, reached out and slowly took the snitch from her hand with his fingers brushing her palm.

            A shiver ran through him where they touched. 

            "_Must be the breeze on my wet clothes," he vaguely thought._

            "Won't you sit down for a bit?" Luna said dreamily while still staring at him. 

            Nodding slowly, Ron moved to sit alongside her in under the cool shade.

            Turning, he studied her for the first time upon entering the clearing. Her waist-length dirty blonde hair fell over her shoulders in waves from her earlier boisterous laughter. Light trickling through the overhead branches turned her hair white gold and giant multicoloured feathers hung at her ears framing her face.

            Suddenly aware that she was still silently staring at him while he appraised her, made his ears, once again, turn a lovely red hue. 

            With his throat dry he blurted, "What're you doing here?"

            "Observing the sister species of the Crumple-Horned Snorkack. They live in the water, you know." Luna said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. 

            "Don't they live in Sweden?" Ron said, humoring her.

            "They don't care much for Sweden's water. Not green enough." She said vaguely staring at the brook.

            Ron just nodded as if he understood.

             They both lapsed into a comfortable silence, with Luna staring dreamily at him and Ron looking anywhere but at her.

            After a couple of minutes he turned to her only to find a dragonfly stuck in her hair, twittering about trying to escape from its golden confines.

            Luna seemed unaware, of course.

            "Will you hold still for a second? There's something stuck in your hair," Ron warned as he carefully untangled her long hair from the dragonfly's wings.

            With his hands tangled in her hair (and the dragonfly free), Ron happened to glance down and into her eyes. 

            The bright sunlight filtering through the branches above them made her pale eyes glow and his breath catch.

            He froze as his eyes met and held hers. Time can only tell how long they sat, mesmerized.

            Something passed between them in that moment of time and Ron felt something deep within him stir.

            Slowly he drew his head down towards hers, his lips seeking then finally meeting hers in a sweet first kiss.

            They drew away from each other, surprise written all over his face while hers only held a warm smile.

            They came together once again, searching and seeking and became immersed in each other. Lost to everything around them but to each other.

***

            Across the clearing, a pair of surprised brown eyes stumbled across the scene. Ginny Weasley stood flabbergasted at the pair but with a slow smile, she turned and with a flick of red hair disappeared into the trees heading back home again. 

AN: Well this was my first attempt at a Ron/Luna fanfic and I certainly hope I did a decent job conveying these two characters. My goal was to write a fanfic that I would enjoy reading and I hope I've accomplished that. I also hope it was worth your time in reading it. J


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